Tussle with Amtrak and GDOT could kill Beltline vision
February 2, 2009 at 11:59 am by Thomas Wheatley in News
RAIL RALLY Beltline supporters say Amtrak, GDOT's plans jeopardize Beltline
When it comes to the future of public transit in Atlanta, there’s good news and there’s bad news.
The good news: After decades of bowing at the throne of roadbuilders, the Georgia Department of Transportation says it’s finally taking off the kneepads and getting serious about train service that would connect Atlanta to other cities in the Southeast.
The bad news: Thanks to an unexpected tiff between GDOT and city of Atlanta officials, the Beltline — the transformative 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit that would one day circle the city — might be in jeopardy. That’s because the train service that GDOT is suddenly embracing would have to run on or near the proposed Beltline tracks. What’s more, Piedmont Park, the city’s most iconic greenspace, might have to be severed by a heavy-rail route in order to accommodate GDOT’s vision.
Last week, CL first reported that GDOT — working in tandem with Amtrak — threw a wrench in Beltline officials’ plans for light-rail, trails and additional green space near Piedmont Park. Just as Norfolk Southern, the current owner of the tracks in question, was about to surrender them to the city, GDOT and Amtrak stepped in and halted the proceedings. Those two agencies now say the tracks in dispute are vital to their own vision for commuter rail.
“Simply put, because of GDOT’s boorish behavior and AMTRAK’s willingness to play along, the future of the city of Atlanta is at stake,” Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote in an urgent letter to U.S. Congressman John Lewis to seek his assistance.
GDOT’s explanation: Those rusty rail lines must be preserved for an important purpose, one which the department says has been planned since 1992. If Atlanta ever wants to see commuter rail inside city limits and a downtown terminal akin to Washington D.C.’s Union Station, the trains must operate along the Decatur Belt that flanks Piedmont Park, GDOT claims.
Officials from Atlanta Beltline Inc. and the city say they were blindsided by the move. GDOT had been actively involved in numerous regional transportation plans, all of which included the Beltline in their lists of supported projects. So why potentially derail the Beltline vision — and involve Amtrak, which has the power to condemn the property — now? Why not step in earlier, before the city began securing funds for the Beltline and buying up land along its proposed route?
That’s a question GDOT hasn’t been able to answer. Weirdly, internal GDOT documents state that the department and the city have been communicating for quite some time — with no mention of a commuter rail line infringing on the wildly popular Beltline.
But one need only look at the transit-friendly policies espoused by President Barack Obama to surmise that GDOT smells federal funding and doesn’t want to miss a single penny that’s dropped.
“We’ve heard clearly from the Obama administration that high-speed rail is going to be something that is on their plates,” GDOT Commissioner Gena Evans says. “And we’re trying to think of ways to show that GDOT is committed to other modes of transportation. I’m ready to do something with commuter rail.”
Evans also says her department, which is in support of the Beltline, hardly kept Atlanta officials in the dark about GDOT’s own commuter rail aspirations.
“The city’s known about it. We’ve known about it. It’s not like someone didn’t know this was an issue,” Evans says, adding that the property’s previous owner, Wayne Mason, had contacted GDOT about any possible commuter rail plans.
If heavy-rail trains don’t run along the tracks, Evans says, they won’t run anywhere in Atlanta. Nor would it be feasible to build high-speed rail or a downtown transit terminal that’s been planned for more than a decade. Plans for the terminal — which already has been earmarked for federal funds — are sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
Last week, on the day the proverbial shit hit the fan, Evans told board members in a memo that the two projects could run side-by-side.
But Beltline officials say GDOT’s plans wouldn’t mesh with the vision of parks, bike trails, mixed-use residential developments and pedestrian thoroughfares. A large, loud, lumbering commuter rail line would be an unwelcome intrusion in that smart-growth utopia.
Many nearby residents aren’t too keen about GDOT’s proposed remedy to run both projects side-by-side. The most controversial aspect of that proposal would be a miles-long, eight-foot-tall barrier that would block nearby residents’ access to Piedmont Park.
“We do need high-speed rail and Georgia needs commuter rail,” says Lee Biola, president of grassroots advocacy group Citizens for Progressive Transit. “But Atlanta needs the Beltline. We can have all three. We just can’t have all three on these tracks.”
Beltline advocates, including Ryan Gravel, who conceived the project while working on his thesis at Georgia Tech, say there is an alternative to the state and Amtrak’s plan, which as of now, has no funding and would take years to carry out. In 2005, Gravel surveyed the various rail segments that would comprise the Beltline’s spine. He concluded that Amtrak’s proposed commuter rail could instead run along active tracks on the west side of the city and operate out of the transit agency’s current Brookwood station in south Buckhead — or even a new hub in Armour Yard near Ansley Park.
But Evans, who acknowledged Gravel’s study in last week’s memo to board members, claims no other scenario will work. It’s Decatur Belt or bust, GDOT says.
The impasse could work against Georgia — a state notorious for infighting among its transportation agencies — when it comes to the federal government’s generosity with infrastructure funding. Terri Montague, who as CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc. oversees the project’s planning and implementation, says new U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood already has been made aware of the dispute.
“Anybody looking for money for Georgia from the federal level is probably going to have to wait until there’s some sense of resolution here,” Montague says. “Our credibility as a state has been called into question. The discord is not looked upon favorably by the federal agencies.”
On Saturday, nearly 300 Beltline supporters rallied on the overgrown and rusty rails in question. They hollered chants, waved signs, and vowed to fight GDOT and Amtrak’s plans. Considering that some supporters in attendance also successfully thwarted GDOT’s plan in the 1980s for a controversial interstate near Candler Park, it’s fair to say the battle could get ugly.
All transit agencies involved in the brouhaha are scheduled to meet on Feb. 4. Evans says the GDOT board also will convene this month to discuss the matter.
Time is of the essence, Beltline officials say. Requests for federal funding are due throughout February. If those deadlines are missed, the project that’s been touted as the most progressive in Atlanta’s recent history could face its most daunting challenge yet.
(Photo by Alan Friedman)
February 4th, 2009 at 11:54 am
The Beltline misinformation juggernaut is the only transit we’ll ever see from this boondoggle. There is no viable transportation element to the Beltline as the program’s own panel concluded at the outset. But Sierra Club and other well-meaning souls were and remain fooled by developer PR.
So why the shrieks of indignation? Because nobody will pay premium prices for highrise parkside condos next to heavy rail.
The winners so far from the Beltline:
NS (25mm for scrap land without abandonment)
Masons (40mm profit on 2 year holding w/o abandonment) Bellwood quarry owner (25mm for scrap land)
Beltline bureaucrats and lawyers
Losers
Atlanta taxpayers and crime victims, because taxes are diverted to pay for all of the above. Instead of an honest choice of whether Atlanta can afford to subsidize developers around Piedmont Park and turn expensive scrap land into parks, what do we get? Kasim Reed, our next mayor, proposing a tax increase to make up for the shortfall in policing. That’s right, because TADs bleed taxes away from their intended use, we now have another tax increase to make up the difference.
Other losers
Local Democracy – because if you can fool most of the people all of the time, that’s not democracy, it’s demockery.
The depressed parts of Atlanta. They should get development but the Beltline won’t bring it when the Piedmont Park section is the developer goldmine. A moratorium on building in the rich but intolerably congested parts of town would automatically bring development to the next best, closest-in neighborhoods. We need and we would get more Castleberry Hills and Puritan Mills and no more highrises spewing excess cars on Monroe Drive near the park or in Buckhead
February 4th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
The BeltLine, Atlanta transit, and regional passenger rail are becoming just another playground toy for local politicians and developers. They care nothing about building a transit network for our region, and are looking solely on their own short-sighted, selfish goals and projects.
I support the BeltLine because it may be the FIRST STEP towards the transportation network that Atlanta desperately needs to allow for future growth opportunities. But the BeltLine will only be successful if it is an integral part of a much larger, multi-faceted system. Should passenger rail play a role in that system? Many say yes, but no one really knows. But passenger rail is a real option that cannot be ignored and one that should not be foreclosed or compromised, especially during this beginning stage of planning and building the city’s future transit system
So why do the BeltLine honchos have their shorts tied in a knot about Amtrak’s interest in providing passenger rail to Atlanta? Is the real plan of the BeltLine honchos to settle for a cute BeltLine “tourist” attraction and to forget about an intra-city transit network that seamlessly enables people to get to places they want to go to? Are those honchos going to squander opportunities to link to inter-city transit networks (e.g., air and rail)? Will they ignore the fact that having passenger rail come through that area of the City and touch the BeltLine could be tremendous, if done right and with the right technology? Will they not even strive to have both the BeltLine and passenger rail?
I can only assume the BeltLine honchos never real saw the BeltLine as a transit project. They must have viewed it as a private party real estate development project. And now is the prospect of solid future transportation options for Atlantans is getting in their way. The choice between transportation for all and real estate development profits for a few is obvious.
February 4th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Right on the money.
When this first broke, I surmised that money was involved and that GDOT was posturing to get more stimulus money. Amtrak is a pawn in all this — GDOT is just dangling them out there to get more funding. Would they ever follow through after they got the money? My money says no.
And their apparent indifference to the MANY residents who would have high speed rail in their backyards is astounding, not to mention the number of at-grade street crossings such a proposal would involve.
High speed rail is a vital component to a region, and I’m all for having a station serving Downtown. But to do it at the expense of a walkable, livable urban environment is myopic. What does a person do when they get off the train? If you’re serious about transit, you marry heavy rail with the other forms of transit that would then get people around the City (which includes light rail, buses, and yes walking and biking).
One of the biggest problems with MARTA is that it “doesn’t go anywhere” — that is, once you are off the train it’s often daunting to get to your final destination, which makes it attractive mainly to people who don’t have or can’t afford a car.
It’s like building a highway and having no roads once you get off the exits.
And the commentary on the negative political ramifications of the infighting is also spot on. What administration would give money to a state whose jurisdictions so clearly can’t get their acts together?
February 4th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
hmmm
all good points
The proposed beltine & probably the GDOT would be ion my backyard.
Put the damn heavy rail up in the air higher than the MARTA, like the interstates are. (where there are Beltline & speedrail conflicts)
Fire the designers & hire one from disneyland, they pulled it off
February 4th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
How does AMTRAK plan to get their high spped rail through Halsy Yard? Over it does not work because of MARTA and one can only assume that a tunnel is cost prohibitive. If they can’t answer this question, then what exactly are they doing? Stick w. Option 3
February 6th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Neither project has a goal anymore except to collect money. No one seems to want to admit that these projects will be bad for the neighborhoods and the park. Beltline was a nice concept for transit. Too bad its now just a joke that will be a money pit for those of us still living in the city in 10 years with no new transit anywhere in site. Kill both projects and do something constructive and quick.
July 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 am
Fire the designers & hire one from disneyland, they pulled it off